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BOSTON 1775
The opening scenes of the American Revolution were acted out
some 240 years ago. The leading actors and events – Samuel
Adams and John Hancock; the Boston Tea Party, Lexington and
Concord, and Bunker Hill - have assumed a cherished place in
our history. Yet, with the passage of time, a layer of legend and
romance has settled over these scenes, sometimes obscuring
the true picture.
The legend persists that the Revolution was brought about by
moderate men rebelling against harsh British tyranny. But, in
reality, the cause of liberty was spearheaded by radical leaders
whose strident cries drowned out the voices of the moderates.
Both the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party were the
result of mob violence sparked by such men as Adams and
Hancock. We sometimes forget that in the decade before the
Revolution, Boston and other American cities were, at times,
ruled by brutal street mobs that sacked the homes of officials
and assaulted anyone who opposed them.
A haze of romance also shrouds the first battles of the war. The
minutemen who fought the redcoats on April 19, 1775, were
not the deadly marksmen later generations have supposed only one of every 300 bullets they fired hit anything. And for
every colonial who faced with cool courage the British bayonets
at Bunker Hill, two others fled or refused to aid their hardpressed comrades. This first major engagement of the war is
even misnamed. It was not fought on Bunker Hill at all, but on
nearby Breed’s Hill.
The Americans who made the Revolution were average men
and women challenging the greatest military power of their
time, and if they sometimes made mistakes or ran from the
sound of the guns, it is not surprising. It should be a source of
pride for us to realize that enough of these people stood up to
the redcoats at Lexington and Concord and Breed’s Hill to triumph.
The Revolution lasted six long, bloody years before the thirteen
colonies won their independence, yet the pattern was set in
those first few months. Against long odds, despite military defeat, the Americans hung on and won their objective.
Fortunately, they were willing to accept Patrick Henry’s grim
terms: “I know not what course others may take; but for me,
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give me liberty or give me death!”
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“I then went Home, took my Boots and Surtout, and went to
the North part of the Town, Where I had kept a Boat; two
friends rowed me across Charles River, a little to the eastward
where the Somerset Man of War lay. It was then young flood,
the Ship was winding, and the moon was Rising. They landed
me on Charlestown side . . . and I went to git me a Horse.”
So wrote Paul Revere of his ride of April 18, 1775, the most
famous in American history. He and his two friends were fortunate to slip across the river so easily, for the Somerset, with
sentinels alert, was anchored in the channel to prevent such a
crossing - and the moon was full that night. But they managed
to muffle their oars with a petticoat they had borrowed from a
friendly young lady and reached the opposite shore unobserved.
Boston, behind them, was a virtual garrison town, with 4,000
British troops quartered among the 20,000 inhabitants. Since
June 1774 - six months after Bostonians masquerading as Indians had dumped the East India Company’s tea into the harbor the port of Boston had been closed by act of Parliament. Closed
it would remain, His Majesty’s government announced, until the
tea was paid for.
The force to padlock the Boston peninsula was furnished by
nine regiments of regulars, plus parts of two others. Many of
these troops had disembarked in the spring of 1774. From Ireland had come the King’s Own, the 5th, the 38th, the 43rd, and
three companies of the Royal Irish. The Royal Welch Fusiliers
and their goat mascot arrived from New York. Besides the
numbered regiments, there were enough marines to make up a
regiment of their own and an artillery train that camped on Boston Common.
While Boston’s commercial life withered, affairs were humming
in the outlying, unoccupied towns. Growing numbers of Whigs those who in varying degrees and for varying reasons were opposed to the royal authority - had been gathering powder and
supplies for a foreseeable clash with the redcoats. On village
greens across New England, the “minutemen” had begun to
drill, preparing for action at a moment’s notice.
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